Biosphere Expeditions Magazine 2015

Transforming conservation volunteeringand tomorrows citizen scientists Immersion learning

Expeditions by the dozen Citizen science - does it work? The way to biosphere & much more

2015

magazin

e

CITIZEN SCIENCE

to the sixth issue of the annual Biosphere Expeditions Magazine. The lead topics this year are citizen science and voluntourism, large and growing issues for us over the last few years. When we started in 1999, there were only a few organisations in the voluntourism market. Then responsible holidays became a big thing and the inevitable happened: profit-driven companies at best, and charlatans at worst, started to come in and make life hard for organisations wanting to do and people looking for the real McCoy. We have been going on about this ever since, most importantly with our Top Ten Tips on choosing a wildlife volunteering experience (see www.biosphere-ex-peditions.org/toptentips). This issue of our annual Magazine explores this and other topics at the citizen science end of voluntourism.

Other big news is two new marine protected areas in Oman built on our work, a new tiger expedition in Sumatra and a leopard expedi-tion in South Africa, and last but not least, our brand new website.

All this, as well as our usual staple of expe-ditions and news, is contained in this issue. Enjoy the read.

Kathy Gill Dr. Matthias HammerStrategy Director Founder & Executive Director

Welcome

Welcome

Magazine 2014 | 3

4 | Magazine 2014

about us ber uns propos

Magazine 2014 | 5

Biosphere Expeditions is an award-winning not-for-profit conservation organisation, and a member of IUCN and the UNs Environment Programme. For us successful conserva-tion is the collective effort of individuals. We invite every-one to join us on our wildlife and wilderness projects all over the world. Whether young or old, become a citizen scientist for one or two weeks, or more.

The foundation of our work is science and local need. We focus on sustainable conservation projects that target clearly defined, critical issues that humankind has the power to change. International volunteers work hand-in-hand with local biologists and communities to drive posi-

tive outcomes for biodiversity - the creation of a protected area for snow leopards in the Altai is just one recent example.

Biosphere Expeditions is a member of the IUCN (Inter-national Union for the Conservation of Nature) and of the United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP) Governing Council & Global Ministerial Environment Fo-rum. Achievements include the implementation of our conservation recommendations and species protection plans by numerous national and regional governments and NGOs, the creation of protected areas on four conti-nents, scientific and lay publications, as well as capacity-building, training and education all over the world.

Biosphere Expeditions ist eine gemeinntzige, mehrfach ausgezeichnete Naturschutzorganisation und Mitglied des IUCN und Umweltprogrammes der UN. Wir sind ber-zeugt, dass erfolgreicher Naturschutz auf Zusammenarbeit basiert. Engagieren auch Sie sich als Teilnehmer in unseren Natur- und Artenschutzprojekten weltweit. Ob jung oder alt, werden sie Laienforscher fr ein oder zwei Wochen oder mehr.

Wir arbeiten wissenschaftlich mit Blick auf die lokalen Er-fordernisse. Dabei konzentrieren wir uns auf langfristig angelegte Projekte, die klare und vor allem erreichbare Ziele haben. Freiwillige Helfer aus aller Welt arbeiten Hand in Hand mit Feldforschern und den Menschen vor Ort fr den Erhalt der Artenvielfalt. Die Schaffung eines

Schutzgebietes fr Schneeleoparden im Altai ist nur ein Beispiel aus der jngsten Vergangenheit.

Biosphere Expeditions ist Mitglied des IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) und des Umwelt-programmes der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP). Zahlreiche nationale und regionale Regierungen setzen unsere Empfehlungen zu Natur- und Artenschutzschutzstrate-gien um. So haben wir zur Schaffung von Schutzgebieten auf vier Kontinenten beigetragen. Auerdem frdert Bio-sphere Expeditions die Ausbildung von Fachkrften und schafft damit lokale Kapazitten. Forschungsergebnisse werden regelmig in Fachzeitschriften und anderen Medien weltweit publiziert.

Biosphere Expeditions est une organisation but non lu-cratif,plusieurs fois prime et membre de lIUCN et du Pro-gramme des Nations Unies pour lEnvironnement. Pour nous une conservation russie de lenvironnement est un effort collectif dindividus, donc venez nous rejoindre sur un de nos projets portant sur la faune et lenvironnementpar-tout dans le monde. Que vous soyez jeune ou vieux, devenez un citoyen scientifique pour une ou deux semaines, ou plus.

Les bases de notre travail sont la science et les besoins lo-caux. Nous sommes attachs des projets de conservation durable avec des buts clairement dfinis sur des thmes cruciaux que lhumanit a le pouvoir de changer. Des volon-taires du monde entier travaillent main dans la main avec des biologistes et les communauts locales afin dobtenir

des rsultats positifs pour la biodiversit la cration dune zone protge pour les lopards des neiges dans lAlta en est lun des exemples les plus rcents.

Biosphere Expeditions est membre de lUICN (Union In-ternationale pour la Conservation de la Nature) et du Conseil dadministration/Forum ministriel mondial sur lenvironnement du Programme des Nations Unies pour lEnvironnement (PNUE). Nos ralisations comptent gale-ment ladoption par plusieurs gouvernements nationaux ou locaux et par des ONGs de recommandations de plans de conservations et de protection despces ainsi que la cra-tion de zones protges sur quatre continents, des publica-tions (scientifiques et grand public), ou bien le renforcement des capacits, la formation et lducation travers le monde.

Artenschutz frdern damit Natur profitiert

Promouvoir la conservation de la vie sauvage pour la nature, pas le profit

Advancing wildlife conservation for nature, not profit

About us

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PUBLISHER Biosphere [email protected]

EDITORS Matthias Hammer, Kathy Gill

ARTWORK Malika [email protected]

PICTURES Biosphere Expeditions unless otherwise stated

COPYRIGHT Biosphere ExpeditionsAll rights reserved. No partial or total reproduction without the

written permission of the publisher. Printed in Germany 2014.

EDITORIAL

DR. VOLODYA TYTAR was born in 1951 and his Masters Degree in Biology is from Kiev State University. At that time he first experienced the Tien Shan moun-tains, where he is now Biosphere Expeditions lead scientist on snow leopard research, and wrote a term paper on the ecology of the brown bear. He then pursued a career as an invertebrate zoologist before shifting

towards large mammals and management planning for nature conservation. As well as in Kyrgyzstan, he has worked with Biosphere Expeditions on wolves, vipers and jerboas on the Ukraine Black Sea coast, and on snow leopards in the Altai mountains, and has been involved in surveying and conservation measures all his professional life.

The backbone of Biosphere Expeditions: meet the staff

Biosphere Expeditions employs a global team of wildlife enthusiasts who all contribute to the success of the organisation:expedition leaders, scientists, field-based and administrative staff. Their roles are as diverse as their backgrounds, but they all sharea love of the outdoors and wildlife. Here are just two from our team and more can be found at www.biosphere-expeditions.org/staff.

CATHERINE EDSELL was born in the UK into a family of mountaineers, skiers and ad-venturers. With wanderlust in her blood and a BA in Creative Arts under her belt, she left her career as a choreographer and set off to the jungles of Central America and Indonesia, lived in the Himalaya with locals, trekked through the

Namib desert in search of elusive elephants and dived the oceans. Her passion for con-servation grew as she sought out and trained with expedition organisations who echoed her ecological beliefs and for seven years straight, her feet barely touched British soil as she lived the expedition life in all sorts of terrains. Catherine joined Biosphere Expedi-tions in 2012 to realise her ambition to participate in true conservation work.

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10

Scientists and their citizens - what they can achieve

Transformingconservation volunteeringand tomorrows citizen scientists

New South African leopard project

New Sumatratiger project

Meet the staff

contents

40

34

20

Citizen science - does it work?

Expeditionsby the dozen

Immersionlearning

Contents

BACKGROUND & INFO

3 Welcome4 About us6 Meet the staff 6 Editorial7 Contents

33 Round-up

45 Awards & accolades46 News & views The Friends of Biosphere Expeditions & the Look Ahead network

54 Pecunia non olet?58 Media clippings

14 Amazonia expedition18 Arabia expedition26 Maldives expedition30 Sumatra expedition33 Musandam expedition38 Slovakia expedition39 Tien Shan expedition

43 South Africa expedition44 Azores expedition48 Western Australia expedition51 Malysia expedition

52 Experience Days

Australia, UK, USA

53 Schnuppertage

Deutschland

49

CITIZEN SCIENCE STORIES

10 Transforming conservation volunteering

and tomorrows citizen scientists by Kathy Gill

20 Immersion learning by Dr. Gregor Hodgson

27 Time & money, scientists and their citizens -

what they can chieve by Dr. Matthias Hammer

34 Expeditions by the dozen by Martyn Roberts40 Citizen science - does it work? by Prof. Marcelo Mazzolli52 The way to Biosphere by Alisa Clickenger

BIOSPHERE EXPEDITIONS CONSERVATION PROJECTS

Magazine 2014 | 7

10 | Magazine 2014

Transforming conservation volunteeringand tomorrows citizen scientistsBiosphere Expeditions strategy director Kathy Gillon the history and challenges of conservation volunteering

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Much of todays conservation movement in the UK grew out of concerns to protect the English countryside idyllPicture Christopher Dixon

Magazine 2014 | 11

Citzen science

A short history of conservationvolunteering in the UK

In John Sheails account of environ-mental history in the 20th century, he identifies the emergence of a rural economic Third Force in addition

to farming and forestry. He talks about how this Third Force provides conscious stewardship of rural land-scapes for their amenity and wildlife.

Following on from this, a 2012 paper by Cook and Inman in the Journal of Environmental Management, gives us a good overview of the development of conservation volunteering: With its origins in 19th century state con-cerns over human welfare, the Third Force reflects a phil-anthropic and voluntary response from those in posi-tion of responsibility and influence. This particular drive for conservation furthermore represents a strand other than that from the emerging statutory planning process of the last century. The National Trust in the UK is a good example of an organisation that came about as part of this Third Force. The Trust was formed in 1895 with an Act of Parliament. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSBP) was also set up in the late 19th century. Lat-er on came other nation-wide organisations such as the Wild Fowl and Wetland Trust, founded in 1946, and the Wildlife Trusts, founded in 1972 [the former being set up in Norfolk where Biosphere Expeditions is based]. During the inter-war period, concern over unplanned urbanisa-tion led to an appeal to the counter-industrial English Rural Idyll followed by the politicisation of countryside conservation forged in the formation of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) that dates from 1926. Its founders, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres (politician and art historian), Sir Guy Dawber (architect) and the pioneer town planner, Sir Patrick Abercrombie, repre-sent not only a cultural elite, but also reflected concern, at the top level of the British establishment, and hostil-ity towards large commercial and urban centres. Later, environmental pressure groups once more became manifest through the activities of Friends of the Earth from the 1970s and went hand-in-hand with a dramatic expansion of the RSPB later in the last century.

So the development of large conservation organisa-tions grew out of the concerns of society over changes that were being seen in the countryside. Movements, although led by a few, actually came about due to the pressure of the many. The present in that sense reflects the past with the volunteering conservation holiday movement also growing due to demand from people to lend their support to conservation abroad via this relatively new pathway.

A short history of holiday volunteering and the market today

Conservation volunteering as we understand it today started in the 1980s with a small group of organisations, such as Operation Raleigh in the UK and Earthwatch in the USA, taking untrained people away for varying peri-ods of time to learn about and undertake conservation work abroad. The early organisations were largely from North American or Western Europe, as were the people that went with them, and they largely went to develop-ing countries, often following the same geographical pat-terns that colonialism had done before, allbeit with very different intentions. The body of organisations swelled from early in the 21st century (Biosphere Expeditions was founded in 1999, see info box on page 19 for a short history) until the current status quo was arrived at a plethora of organisations of all shapes and sizes with a dazzling array of opportunities for those wanting to what become known as volunteer abroad. Nowadays you can do just that for a day, a week, a month...up to several years. Projects are not confined to just conservation - you can do anything from looking after orphaned animals, to teach-ing English, building walls and undertak-ing diving surveys. The market is satu-rated. Today there are too many oppor-tunities with too few people to fill them, and it is very diffi-cult to decipher the words on the often

There is a remarkable similiarity between

popular volunteering countries and the colonization map

of 1945

There is a strong tradition of amateurs leading the way in conservation all over the world. The modern development of land areas protected for the purposes of conservation came about largely through thedetermination of people who were not paid to do it. As Gregor Hodgson observes in his article (from page20 onwards), the same is true for weather forecasting. Volunteers also led the way in setting up societies and clubs to observe and help protect those areas and the fauna and flora within, in the process becoming some of the worlds largest and most well-established conservation bodies.

12 | Magazine 2014

impressive websites to understand what the organisa-tions actually do on the ground.

Some organisations appear to care about the impact that they have and others seem only to care about tak-ing peoples money and giving the volunteers an ex-perience (some also do not appear to care about the safety of the volunteers, but that is the very worst end of the scale).

Nature threats and ecosystem services

The need for volunteers is greater than it has ever been before. In all parts of the world, nature is being squeezed (see HIPPO threats to nature on page 16), sometimes all the way out and sometimes just into a tight spot, but everywhere there is an urgent need for people to ensure that protecting the nature that we have is balanced with our need for resources.

One interesting development is the growth in think-ing about ecosystem services, now no longer a new concept, but still something that is largely only talked about by the people involved with it. This has been the development of ways of putting a monetary value on different things that nature provides for us, and by monetarising it, the idea is that it makes it easier for people to understand its importance and the impor-tance of leaving different natural resources in place. The ecosystem service that a piece of land provides can be things such as what it provides in terms of flood protection, oxygen production or carbon storage, and it can therefore give people a monetary value of hav-ing to replicate this service were it to be lost through the removal of the natural asset. People get a direct measurable value to us as a species. There is an inter-esting development in the UK where one conservation organisation, Buglife, is working on a way that people

can value open spaces such as parks, and can establish an ecosystem services value for their local park or their own gardens, showing what they and their local area are contributing directly to nature and giving some ideas of how they can increase the value of their own land to nature.

Resources for conservation have been cut in recent years. Part of the fall-out of tight economic times has been the reduction of funds for conservation and fewer people being paid to undertake science and habitat manage-ment. This reduction comes at

a time when there is also an emerging acceptance of conservation dependence. Humans have intervened so much in nature, both intentionally and unintentionally, that we cannot just walk away and expect everything to work out in our absence. We have structurally al-tered landscapes and species assemblages to the point where, if we just left them alone now, the imbalance that we have created would turn them into very differ-ent places. The world is now dependent on people to manage it, and our integration and impact on it.

A very sophisticated set of criteria and levels of pro-tection and management that are applied around the globe to protect areas and species have been devel-oped (see info box on page 17). But how are we to pro-tect even these areas without the resources to do so?

The rise of the citizen scientist

Citizen science is a relatively new term, but one that is rising in peoples awareness very fast. It is the term ap-plied to people who do not need (and usually do not have) any training in a scientific area to undertake some

basic, but important work within it. This usu-ally involves the sort of data collection that can be done with some basic skills and that needs to be done a lot. It is often not flashy or indeed particularly exciting, but it is some-thing that is often highly absorbing, fascinat-ing to undertake and critical if we are to learn more about how the living world functions. People can get involved in many ways from analysing photos whilst sat at their computer screens, to making observations in their gar-dens, to heading out into the field, at home or abroad, and working alongside scientists on the ground. I believe that this movement is an essential part of the future if we are to make conservation work.

Examples of ecosystem services

Citizen science

The world is now

dependenton people

to manage it

Magazine 2014 | 13

Can conservation volunteering help?

A local case study on identifying the issues fortransforming conservation volunteering

Can volunteering help more than it already is to plug the resources gap that conservation faces now and into the future? Biosphere Expeditions teamed up with the Cam-bridge Conservation Forum (CCF) to look at the issue.

CCFs purpose is to strengthen links and develop col-laborations across the diverse community of conserva-tion practitioners and researchers based in and around Cambridge in the UK, working at local, national and international levels. Over 50 organisations based in the Cambridge area, whose primary focus is the con-servation of biodiversity, are currently members of CCF, including non-governmental conservation organisa-tions, government agencies, university departments and consultancies. Within CCF the range of volunteers and the range of roles that they take on are varied. Many organisations have volunteers who meet once or twice a week and undertake habitat management work, some have thousands of volunteers to take ob-servations weekly throughout the year, some volun-teers are working as interns, some do the accounts, whilst others have paying volunteers who work on conservation projects during their holiday time.

A group from CCF met to discuss Transforming Conser-vation Volunteering. This involved setting out issues that members had identified, both good and bad, and

looking at the barriers and opportunities. There were many questions and comments raised, but the three key issues for conservation volunteer organisers were:

1. Not enough of the right people are volunteering in conservation

This was a debated issue where some felt there were not enough people whilst others felt that there was enough volume of people, but that they were often not the right people.

The background to this in the UK is that the general level of formal volunteering appears to be pretty stable at around 40% of the pop-ulation (according to the Institute for Volunteering Research), but that of these, the smallest area of volunteering is within the envi-ronmental area, with only 20% of those volunteering doing so and conservation being a only one sub-set of this. There has also been a lot of attention recently to the lack of engagement of young people with the nat-ural world. There is concern that a general lack of inter-est in the young will lead to a generation with even less regard for the environment than the last, and at a time when we need to focus more attentively on the needs of nature and our place within it. There is a general lack of syntony (see page 19) that needs to be addressed at many levels, but particularly with younger people who could, if engaged, be a powerful force for change.

Citizen science

Are we losing young people to other,virtual pursuits?

There is a general lack

of syntony

14 | Magazine 2014

AMAZONIA - PERUAmazonian plethora: biodiversity monitoring of jaguars, pumas, primates and other flagship species of the Peruvian Amazon

More info www.biosphere-expeditions.org/amazonia

This expedition will take you to a re-mote biodiversity hotspot of the up-per Amazon rainforest. As part of a small international team, you will experience living and working in the jungle together with local biologists on an important wildlife survey con-centrating on cats, primates and other flagship species of the Amazon to aid community conservation efforts and the development of sustainable man-agement strategies. Based at a com-fortable jungle lodge in a remote part of the forest, you will be working on foot in the jungle and in canoes on nat-ural waterways, recording species, set-ting camera traps, creating databases, etc. All this as an integral part of a con-servation project that will preserve an intact landscape of forest for further multidisciplinary research projects.

Expedition contribution1240 (ca. 1550 | US$2050 | AU$2190)

Dates & meeting point6 - 12 September 201513 - 19 September2015 (7 days)The meeting point is in Iquitos(a regional centre in Peru).

Projects

Pictur

e Al

fredo

Dosa

ntos

Picture Alfredo Dosantos

Magazine 2014 | 15

2. Could the rise of citizen science within conservation be part of the answer?

Understanding the profile of volunteers is a crucial issue to address so that more volunteers can be en-gaged in citizen science in the future. This area of volunteering is often less strenuously physical, being

more about learning and ob-servation than manual work. Al-though people often still need to be active, it is more at the level of hiking than digging. It attracts those who have inquisitive minds and, in the holiday approach, it is something that can be done on an episodic basis - there is no

regular, long-term commitment required, people can join in for short or long periods whenever they want to. This is the model that Biosphere Expeditions oper-ates and our role is to help people to engage with this type ofvolunteering more by making it as accessible as we can to as many people as possible. By working more and more with conservation bodies who are al-ready operating on the ground in an area (WWF and NABU as two big examples), we are adding resource to the efforts of others, as well as providing a new angle on some old issues through our approach. By giving people an accessible, worthwhile, safe and fun way of engaging, we are hoping to support the development of citizen science as we move into a period of history where this resource may just tip the balance in our bat-tle to retain biodiversity and slow the depletion of our natural resources.

3. How to define and produce quality in both thevolunteer experience and the conservation impact

There was general concern over how difficult it is and can be to know which organisations and projects are good ones to go on. This is where good means that the experience for the volunteer will be satisfying and safe, and that the outcomes for conservation will be meaningful. There have been a plethora of opportu-nities set up for people to volunteer in conservation over recent years, some of which are the result of im-portant projects being able to publicise themselves more, but some of which are more about people see-ing an opportunity to make money and setting up projects of no or limited value and then marketing them to the unsuspecting world. Brokering organi-sations have been established with limited ability to monitor the projects that they advertise and which therefore have little control over the quality of their products. Comments of CCF members highlighted that even when a volunteering experience was a good one, it was often far from being the one that was ad-vertised. A number of people also posed the question of how honest marketing could compete with op-portunities that advertised themselves as more than they truly were offering more excitement through

direct contact with animals, feeding into the expecta-tions that can be created through the consumption of wonderful wildlife documentaries and the general disneyfication of wildlife.

There have been a number of attempts made to clarify things for the consumer: codes of practice have been produced, quality marks have been launched, awards ceremonies established. But the ultimate accredited standard so far eludes an industry that is so diverse as to make tick-box solutions impossible and complex solu-tions unworkable and unfunded. A number of people at the CCF meeting came up with the same idea as a pos-sible solution throw the problem over to the consumer and establish something that does what Tripadvisor has done for travel generally. By setting up a website that allows volunteers to write openly and fully about their experiences, people will truly be able to learn what pro-jects are like. But who will establish something like this? We may find that the Cambridge group starts some-thing up in the future that could lead the way for others.

An organisation-level response what Biosphere Expeditions did

The message from Bio-sphere Expeditions is clear: Dont get involved in any boondoggles masquerading as con-servation volunteering projects (a boondoggle

is a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy motivations). Today, sadly, too many projects are set up only to get tourists to give the organisers money, rather than to achieve any true conservation aims.

This is why we have produced information in the form of a Top Ten Tips to help people to choose a wildlife volunteering experience that is right for them (see page 31). In this way we are hoping that an increase in quality for conservation and for the volunteer will be driven by good, old market-led consumerism.

Where do we go from here?

The importance of citizen science is only likely to increase as government and other public funding streams are cut. It is crucial, therefore, that ethical standards are set now so that volun-tourism and citizen science firmly stay in the philanthropic realm they emerged from. Biosphere Expedi-tions will continue to play its part by showcasing how it can be done. Do come and join us in this effort.

The disneyfication of nature is unlikely to lead

to real conservation

ADVANCINGWILDLIFECONSERVATION for nature, not profit

Citizen science

Citizen science may just tip the

balance to retain biodiversity

16 | Magazine 2014

The HIPPO threats to nature

The number of wild animals on earth has halved in the past 40 years, according to a new analysis published in October 2014. Creatures across land, rivers and the seas are being decimated as humans kill them for food in unsustainable numbers, while polluting or destroying their habitats, the research by scientists at WWF and the Zoological Society of London found. In addition, about 40% of the 40,177 species assessed using the IUCN Red List criteria are now listed as threatened with extinction - a total of 16,119.

World-renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson (see next page) has created the acronym HIPPO for the threats to biodiver-sity and nature, standing for Habitat destruction, Invasive species, Pollution, Population pressure and Over-harvesting.

Habitat destruction has played a key role in extinctions, especially related to tropical forest destruction. Factors contributing to habitat loss are overconsumption,

overpopulation, land use change, deforestation, pollution (air pollu-tion, water pollution, soil contami-nation) and global warming or climate change.

The number of species invasions has been on the rise at least since the beginning of the 1900s. Spe-

cies are increasingly being moved by humans (on pur-pose and accidentally). In some cases the invaders are causing drastic changes and damage to their new habi-tats (e.g. zebra mussels and the emerald ash borer in the Great Lakes region, the lionfish along the North American Atlantic coast and introduced animals such as the fox, rab-bit and pig wreaking havoc on Australias marsupials).

Pollution is a threat to poisoning all forms of life, both on land and in the water, and contributing to climate change. Any chemical in the wrong place or at the wrong concentration can be considered a pollutant. Transport, industry, construction, extraction, power generation and agroforestry all contribute pollutants to the air, land and water. These chemicals can directly affect biodiver-sity or lead to chemical imbalances in the environment that ultimately kill individuals, species and habitats.

From 1950 to 2011, the world population increased from 2.5 billion to 7 billion and is forecast to reach a plateau of more than 9 billion during the 21st century. According to a 2014 study by WWF, the global human population al-ready exceeds the planets biocapacity - it would take the equivalent of 1.5 earths of biocapacity to meet our current demands. The report further points out that if everyone on the planet had the footprint of the average resident of Qa-tar, we would need 4.8 earths, and if we lived the lifestyle of a typical resident of the USA, we would need 3.9 earths.

Over-harvesting occurs when a resource is consumed at an unsustainable rate. This occurs on land in the form of overhunting, excessive logging, poor soil conserva-tion in agriculture and the illegal wildlife trade. About 25% of world fisheries are now overfished to the point where their current biomass is less than the level that maximises their sustainable yield. The overkill hypoth-esis, a pattern of large animal extinctions connected with human migration patterns, can be used to explain why megafaunal extinctions have occured within a relatively short time period, and why the world has lost most of its impressive megafauna on all continents ex-cept Africa, where humans evolved and the megafauna had time to evolve avoidance strategies.

Citizen science

Habitatdestruction has

played a key rolein extinctions

Threats to biodiversity: habitat destruction, over-havesting, pollutionPictures fazon , Johan Larson , sablin - Fotolia.com

Magazine 2014 | 17

Through its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), the IUCN has developed six Protected Area Management Categories that de-

fine protected areas according to their management objectives, which are inter-nationally recognised by various national governments and the United Nations. The categories provide international standards for defining protected areas and encourage conservation planning according to their management aims.

IUCN Protected Area Management Categories

Category Ia Strict Nature Reserve

Category Ib Wilderness Area

Category II National Park

Category III Natural Monument or Feature

Category IV Habitat/Species Management Area

Category V Protected Landscape/Seascape

Category VI Protected Area with sustainable use of natural resources

Edward O. Wilson The loss of biodiversity is a tragedy

An interview reproduced with the kind permission of UNESCO

Harvard University pro-fessor Edward O. Wilson, an entomologist whose specialty is ants, is recog-nised as one of the first theorists to develop the concept of biodiversity Since the publication of his seminal text The Crisis

of Biological Diversity in 1985, Wilson has never ceased to alert policy-makers and the public to the threat posed by biodiversity loss.

You wrote The Crisis of Biological Diversity in 1985. Al-most thirty years later, why is it still so difficult to make people aware of the crucial importance of biodiversity?

It is indeed difficult to raise public awareness about the ongoing mass extinction of biodiversity. I and others have been trying for decades with every means avail-able to us. The problem is that most people do not have much understanding of the subject, as opposed to cri-ses in the physical environment, and extinction of spe-cies, especially in faraway places elsewhere in the world, seem to them a remote issue. But fortunately, awareness of biodiversity loss has grown a great deal lately, and my hope is that we will reach a tipping point in which it will be routine front-page news around the world (like climate change) and something political leaders include in their speeches. We just have to keep pushing. What are the main consequences of species extinction occurring at unprecedented speed for a few decades? Loss of many of the biological genetic encyclopedias millions of years in the making is one consequence. Loss or erosion of ecosystems due to destabilisation caused by erasure of links in food webs is another. Also, loss of opportunities in medicine, biotechnology and agriculture; and not least, loss of a major part of the greatest national and global natural heritage, perma-nently. Even just one of the consequences just listed and all will occur together is a tragedy.

How are climate change and the threat to biodiversity linked?

The causes of species extinction are, in order of mag-nitude of impact on biodiversity, summarised in the

acronym HIPPO: Habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, population pressure and over-harvesting. Climate change is definitely a very big H. Is it already too late to avert disaster?

It is not too late to stem and then halt the extinction of species and the ecosystems they compose. We are certainly too late to save some of them, but global ac-tion now can keep the final loss to a minimum. Science and technology will be a crucial part of the solution. Although vertebrates, corals and plants are reasonably well known, and form the basis of current conservation practice, the great majority of insects and other inver-tebrates remain unknown to science, as well as almost all bacteria and other microorganisms. These latter lit-tle things that run the world are crucial to the survival of the larger creatures, including ourselves. We need a major initiative to explore the little-known planet on which we live, in order to preserve its life. We also need to know far more about the life cycles and ecological relationships of both the known and unknown species. The science to achieve this should be fed directly into innovations in conservation as well as to advance technology in many fields.

Citizen science

Protected Area Management Categories

Global action now can keep the final loss to

a minimum

18 | Magazine 2014

ARABIA - UAEWays of the desert: conserving Arabian oryx, Gordons wildcat, sand fox

& other species in the iconic sandy desert landscape of Arabia

More info www.biosphere-expeditions.org/arabia

This conservation project will take you to the iconic sandy desert land-scape of the Arabian Peninsula. Work-ing alongside scientists from the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, you will be part of a small interna-tional team, monitoring Arabian oryx, Gordons wildcat, sand fox, mountain and sand gazelles and other flagship desert species. From a comfortable oasis field camp you will venture out in the expedition 4WDs and on foot to study antelope behaviour and so-cial structures, camera- and live-trap Gordons wildcat and sand fox, and monitor them by radio and GPS te-lemetry. All this to ensure the survival of important flagship desert species in their beleaguered world.


Dates & meeting point10 - 17 January 2015 (8 days)The meeting point is in the

centre of Dubai.

Projects

Picture Wouter Kingma

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Biosphere Expeditions started in 1999 as one of those famous in the shower ideas. Our founder, Matthias Hammer, with an military background behind him, some student expeditions under his belt and disillusioned with the ivory tower mentality of aca-demia, was looking for a way to combine his training as a biologist with some real-life, hands-on conservation work. When someone suggested why dont you take people on expedition with you, the idea for Biosphere Expeditions was born in the shower one day soon after.

It took a year to set up Biosphere Expeditions as a non-profit organisation in the UK and another year to re-cruit the first expedition team. The first expedition ran in 2001 to Poland, studied wolves of the Carpathian mountains and was instrumental in establishing a wolf hunting ban there. Demand was high and many expedi-tioners, once bitten by the bug, came back for more, so the expedition portfolio quickly increased to include, for example Peru, an expedition still running today.

More expeditions were added, the Friends of Biosphere Expeditions came into being, corporate partners were found, awards won, and the media took a great interest in Biosphere Expeditions. The German office opened in 2002, followed by France in 2004 and North America in 2006.

In 2007 a new website was created and Biosphere Ex-peditions diversified to offer 2-week expeditions and 1-week projects across the globe, as well as taster week-ends in the UK and Germany. In 2014 a completely re-designed website was launched to reflect and showcase the many areas that Biosphere Expeditions is now active in from conservation to capacity-building to involving lo-cal communities.

Over the last few years all this was rewarded in style by winning lots of awards such as Best Volunteering Organisation (First Choice Responsible Travel Awards), Top Conservation Holiday (BBC Wildlife, UK),

Best Holiday for Green-Minded Travellers (Independent on Sunday, UK), Best New Trip (National Geographic Adventure, USA), Top Holiday for Nature (P.M., Ger-many), Environment Award (from the German govern-ment), etc. (see page 45).

This cornucopia of awards was followed by Biosphere Expeditions becoming an officially accredited member of the United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP) Governing Council / Global Ministerial Environment Fo-rum and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2012.

To date Biosphere Expeditions has sent thousands of people into the field and this number continues to grow as the years go by. We are proud to send people from all over the world on expeditions across the globe, making a small but significant contribution to conserving our biosphere.

The CCF group felt that there is a general need to better under-

stand the Volunteer Lifecycle, i.e. the way that people come into and out

of both engagement with nature and also en-gagement with volunteering throughout the different stages

of their life. The concern is that although the very young (pre 14 years of age) are being targeted to re-engage with nature, the fact is that even if they are re-engaged at that age, that most teenagers switch off to nature anyway. It has been observed that most only come back later. The teenage naturalist, when it does occur, is still a rarity and is often seen as a geek. This has been true for a long time and is not necessarily a con-cern. The worry is that even though conservation has always been a minority pursuit for teenagers, that people used to come back to nature in their mid-twenties, but that now this return is being delayed for far longer, often until people are in their fourties and beyond. The pace of life and volume of activities that people have the option to do today has increased so much in the last twenty years that to have time to engage with, let alone volunteer in nature is now seen as more of a struggle. Even those who once volunteered in conservation and then got jobs in the field admit that they too no longer have time to continue their volunteering. So whilst there used to be the image of the conservation volunteer being a young, hippyish type, we are increasingly see-ing the older end of the age range, retired and semi-retired people coming back into the volunteering arena. These people often have different skill sets, levels of physical

ability and willingness to work on certain types of projects than the previous bands of conservation volunteers, and the challenge for the conservation organisations is how to harness this new wave of workers.

The issue then turns out to be less that there are volunteers of the wrong type and more that the volunteering opportunities and the methods of engaging volunteers may not be the right ones for those currently wishing to volunteer.

Could the rise of citizen science within conservation volunteering be part of the an-swer? Understanding the profile of volunteers is a crucial issue to address, so that more volunteers can be engaged in citizen science in the future. This area of volunteering is often less strenuously physical, being more about learning and observation, than manual work. Although people often still need to be active, it is more at the level of hiking than digging. It attracts those who have inquisitive minds and, in the holiday approach, it is something that can be done on an episodic basis there is no regular, long-term commitment required. People can join in for short or long period whenever they want to. This is the model that Biosphere Expeditions operates on and our role is to help people to engage with this type of volunteering more by making it as ac-cessible as we can to as many people as possible. By working more and more with conservation bodies who are already operating on the ground in an area (WWF and NABU as two big examples), we are adding resource to the efforts of others, as well as providing a new angle on some old issues through our approaches. By giving people an accessible, worthwhile, safe and fun way of engaging, we are hoping to support the development of citizen science as we move into a period of history where this resource may just tip the balance in our battle to retain biodiversity and slow the depletion of natural resources.

Citizen science

A potted history of Biosphere Expeditions

Synt ny

the state of being normallyresponsive to and in harmony with the environment and citizen science asa way forward

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Citizen science

A citizen scientist at work, here on the expedition to the

Musandam peninsula of OmanPicture Kelvin Aitken

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We all turn on the radio, TV or computer in the morning and expect to get a weather report. What is not well known is that the com-puter models used to predict weather are partly based on historical observations by a little-known band of vol-unteers. In the United States, as early as 1849, about 150 volunteers were reporting weather observations from throughout the country to the Smithsonian Institution. By 1890, the Cooperative Observer Programme was formally established by the National Weather Service as Americas weather and climate observing network. Today over 11,000 volunteers record temperature, precipitation, wind speed/direction and other observations in cities and rural areas throughout the country. Americans rely on the data collected by volunteers. What if we could train a net-work of citizen scientists to monitor other natural systems such as forests or coral reefs?

Unfortunately, during the past 20 years, the love affair be-tween humans and coral reefs has taken a dramatic toll on the health of the reefs. By the early 1990s anecdotal re-ports of anthropogenic impacts on reefs had reached an alarming level. Poison and dynamite fishing, diver damage, pollution, sedimentation and other impacts were widely reported by long-time divers and some marine biologists. But it was unclear how widespread or serious these effects were. A major turning point in coral reef science occurred in 1993 when a University of Miami geologist, Dr. Robert Ginsburg, organised the Colloquium on Global Aspects of

Coral Reefs and invited about 250 scientists to discuss the health of the worlds reefs. The meeting suc-cessfully highlighted how sparse the available scientific database was on reefs worldwide. There was not enough information available from enough locations to form a picture of the status of the worlds reefs. Science as usual was failing to track the rapid chang-es some scientists believed were taking place on far-flung reefs around the world. The solution would be to design a special scientific survey protocol that could be carried out by non-scientists trained by scientists, and that would produce reliable, highly focused data on coral reef health. If enough volunteer groups could be recruited in this in-ternational survey effort, it should be possible to obtain a synoptic survey of the worlds reefs.

In 1996, I designed a set of survey methods and, after peer review by many colleagues, these became the ba-sis for a coral reef monitoring programme I named Reef Check. Reef Check has three goals: education, monitor-ing and management. For Reef Check, stakeholders include any community with an interest in coral reef conservation, not only those communities located near reefs. Therefore the implementation of commu-nity-based monitoring and management through Reef Check may involve diverse stakeholders such as

A scientists viewof citizen scienceby Dr. Gregor Hodgson, Executive Director, Reef Check Foundation

Reef Check is both a non-profit environmental group and, as the name suggests, a reef research methodology. It is a dream come true for Biosphere Expeditions, because it is a methodology designed for laypeople to become citizen science divers. No wonder then that Biosphere Expeditions is using and has used Reef Check on all its coral reef expeditions in Honduras, Malaysia, Oman and the Maldives. Reef Check is the brainchild of Dr. Gregor Hodgson, a marine biologist. Here is his story.

IMMERSION LEARN I N G

Dr. Gregor Hodgson (right) in discussion withBiosphere Expeditions strategy director Kathy Gill

whilst setting up the Reef Check / Biosphere Expedi-tions project to the Musandam peninsula of Oman

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European or American recreational divers who travel to Oman or the Maldives or Malaysia with Biosphere Expeditions or even surfers who enjoy snorkelling on Fijian reefs, and dive resort owners who would like to provide high quality dives for their guests. In summary, the Reef Check network was designed to provide a two-way flow of information - data collected by teams around the world and sent to a central processing facil-ity, and education and interpretation distributed to the teams, governments, managers, other scientists and the general public by Reef Check Headquarters.

How to define coral reef health?

One of the problems with most coral reef monitor-ing protocols is that they are too complicated to be taught to recreational divers and require a long train-ing period (measured in weeks). This is because they require taxonomic identification to the species level, a requirement that can only be met when teams of specialists collaborate (even most marine biologists can only identify one group of plants or animals such as fish). Secondly, existing reef survey methods were usually designed to measure a large number of pa-rameters that may help to attain a more complete understanding of ecology and relationships among organisms, but that are not particularly helpful for gaining a rapid assessment of coral reef health. Like a thermometer we use to judge if we have a fever, Reef Check methods were designed to collect the mini-mum information needed to judge coral reef health. The methodology and identification skills can be mas-tered in a couple of days and reef health is defined by abundance of 'Key Indicator' organisms chosen for ecological roles, sensitivity to human impacts, desira-bility for human consumption, market value and ease of identification (e.g. distinctive shape and colour, see pictures). An instruction manual is provided along with a set of detailed training materials Powerpoint presentations and videos. There is also a set of certifi-cation standards and tests to ensure that each trainee is truly proficient in the protocol.

Overfishing is the primary problem

In 1997 the first global survey of coral reefs was carried out by teams of recreational divers trained and led by marine scientists during the period between 14 June and 31 August at 315 reef sites in 31 countries and ter-ritories spread around the world without any fund-ing. Each team was responsible for funding its own operations. This was the first biological global survey of any kind facilitated by the internet. The survey was repeated during an extended six month survey period in 1998. In 1999 the programme was opened to year-around activity and the number of countries increased to 50 while the survey sites exceeded 500. By 2014, over 90 countries and territories have participated in Reef Check and over 7,000 reefs have been surveyed by 20,000 volunteers and scientists.

Some key indicator species relatively easy to identify and indicating something interesting.

Moray eel: Presence indicates a healthy reef. Picture Kelvin Aitken Humphead wrasse: Absence or low numbers indicates overfishing. Lobster: Absence or low numbers indicates overfishing. Picture Dan Clemens Butterflyfish: Absence or low numbers indicates overfishing. Picture Kelvin Aitken Flamingo tongue: Absence or low numbers indicate aquarium trade collection. Hard corals: Good coverage indicates a healthy reef. Picture Kelvin Aitken

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The first years results provided clear evidence that widespread overfishing was the major impact on coral reefs everywhere. Those initial findings were recon-firmed by subsequent surveys and by many other inde-pendent scientific investigations. On most reefs, most high value indicator organisms were simply missing: zero lobster, grouper, giant clams, etc. No reefs showed high numbers of most indicator organisms, suggesting that few, if any, reefs had been unaffected by fishing and gathering. None of the reefs could be considered pris-tine. Even reefs within Marine Protected Areas showed low numbers of indicators, suggesting that many of these were 'paper parks' with little effective manage-ment. This was a very controversial new finding in 1997.

1998 was an El Nio year and the hottest since 1860 when records were first kept. Coral bleaching began in the In-dian Ocean and the South Pacific in January, and then followed the sun. By 1999, 30% of survey sites reported some bleaching, with high mortality in the Indian Ocean, and parts of Asia. Up to 90% of shallow water corals were killed in parts of the Indian Ocean and high mortalities were recorded down to 40 m. The severity of the event was shown by the death of corals up to 1,000 years old in several parts of the world including Vietnam and the Great Barrier Reef. The 1999 Reef Check survey results showed a 15% global loss of living coral cover as the fi-nal tally of destruction from this dramatic forecast of the effects of predicted increasing global warming. This demonstrated that coral reefs are a sensitive indicator of global warming.

In addition to producing useful scientific results, the programme has been successful in achieving its sec-ond goal of raising public awareness about coral reefs. In fact, for the minority of scientists who did not accept the fact that trained and tested citizen scientists can re-liably survey reefs, this was the most valuable achieve-ment.

Providing tools for coral reef management

There is a fundamental need to give communities a complete set of tools and training so that they can manage their own reefs. Progress towards making Reef Check available through existing coastal manage-ment and coral reef programmes has been rapid, but far more work was needed to expand the network and provide the training needed to use the tools.

This process of institutionalisation of Reef Check has occurred with the help of the United Nations Environmental Programme, UN Development Pro-gramme, UNESCO, World Bank, US Agency for Inter-national Development, US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and numerous non-governmental organisations such as the World-wide Fund for Nature, the Coral Reef Alliance, Reef-keeper, CANARI and many others, including of course Biosphere Expeditions.

Shifting baseline syndrome

The scientific results of Reef Check surveys highlighted the importance of the shifting baseline syndrome (see info box on page 24). There are few quantitative data describing what populations of reef organisms were like several hundred years ago, before widespread fish-ing. In general, changes that occur over a human life span are recognised, and reported at least anecdotally, by fishermen or divers. But when changes have oc-curred long ago, or slowly over several hundred years, it is difficult to guess what the 'pristine baseline' may have been like. Terrestrial examples of this phenome-non are common and familiar. Studies have document-ed how overfishing led to diminished fish populations in Jamaica over 100 years ago and suggest that this situation is common. Furthermore, the studies argue that no truly pristine reefs remain because, in addition to widespread fishing, populations of large herbivores such as turtles, dugongs and manatees, which would strongly influence coral reef ecology, were historically much higher than they are today. Many coral reef fish grow and mature slowly. This biological explanation for why it is so easy to 'fish out' coral reefs has led to suggestions by some scientists that no commercial harvesting be allowed on any reefs!

Reef Check results have been provided freely to various organisations involved in documenting and assessing changes to coral reefs. These include the World Fish Centers ReefBase, which is the largest and best devel-oped database on coral reefs. Reef Check results were also used to help build the Reefs at Risk assessment of threats to coral reefs from various sources around the world. This model is now being refined to provide a re-gional assessment of risk in Southeast Asia.

Massive, beautiful coral mounds like this one, many of them a thousand or more years old, were simply killed off during the 1998 bleaching event.

Picture: Kelvin Aitken

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Further ReadingThe Unnatural History of the Sea by Callum Roberts

Humanity can make short work of the oceans crea-tures. In 1741 hungry explorers discovered herds of Stel-lers sea cow in the Bering Strait and in fewer than thirty years, the amiable beast had been harpooned into extinction. Its a classic story, but a key fact is often

omitted. Bering Island was the last redoubt of a species that had been decimated by hunting and habitat loss years before the explorers set sail.As Callum M. Roberts reveals in "The Unnatural History of the Sea", the oceans bounty did not disappear overnight. While todays fish-ing industry is ruthlessly efficient, intense exploitation began not in the modern era, or even with the dawn of industrialisation, but in the eleventh century in medieval Europe. Roberts explores this long and colorful history of commercial fishing, taking readers around the world and through the centuries to witness the transformation of the seas.Drawing on firsthand accounts of early explorers, pirates, merchants, fishers and travellers, the book recreates the oceans of the past: waters teeming with whales, sea lions, sea otters, turtles and giant fish. The abundance of marine life described by fifteenth century seafarers is al-most unimaginable today, but Roberts both brings it alive and artfully traces its depletion. Collapsing fisheries, he shows, are simply the latest chapter in a long history of unfettered commercialisation of the seas.The story does not end with an empty ocean. Instead, Roberts de-scribes how we might restore the splendour and prosperity of the seas through smarter management of our resources and some simple restraint. From the coasts of Florida to New Zealand, marine reserves have fostered spectacular recovery of plants and animals to levels not seen in a century. They prove that history need not repeat itself: we can leave the oceans richer than we found them.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural Historyby Elizabeth Kollbert

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions of life on earth. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Elizabeth Kolbert combines brilliant field reporting, the history of ideas and the work of geologists, botanists and marine biologists to tell the gripping stories of a dozen species including the Panamanian golden frog and the Sumatran rhino some already gone, others at the point of vanishing. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankinds most lasting legacy and Elizabeth Kolberts book urgently compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

SHIFTING BASELINESA shifting baseline is a type of change to how a system is measured, usually against previous reference points (baselines), which them-selves may represent significant changes from an even earlier state of the system. A conceptual metaphor for a shifting baseline is the price of coffee. A cup of coffee may have only cost a $0.05 in the 1950s, but in the 1980s the cost shifted to $1.00 (ignoring inflation). The current (21st century) coffee prices are based on the 1980s model, rather than the 1950s model. The point of reference moved.

The concept arose in landscape architect Ian McHargs famous mani-festo 'Design With Nature' in which the landscape as we know it is com-pared to that which ancient humans once lived on. The concept was then considered by the fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly in his paper An-ecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries. Pauly devel-oped the concept in reference to fisheries management where fisheries scientists sometimes fail to identify the correct 'baseline' population size (e.g. how abundant a fish species population was before human exploitation) and thus work with a shifted baseline. He describes the way that radically depleted fisheries were evaluated by experts who used the state of the fishery at the start of their careers as the baseline, rather than the fishery in its untouched state. Areas that swarmed with a particular species hundreds of years ago may have experienced long-term decline, but it is the level of decades previously that is considered the appropriate reference point for current populations. In this way large declines in ecosystems or species over long periods of time were, and are, masked. There is a loss of perception of change that occurs when each generation redefines what is 'natural'.

Text adapted from Wikipedia.

A Biosphere Expeditionssurvey team in the Maldives

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Using volunteers to save coral reefs

There are motivated people who care about coral reefs throughout the world. They are willing to carry out a great deal of difficult volunteer work in fund-raising, organising, training and surveys if they feel it is fun, useful to them and helps coral reefs. Therefore the volunteer aspect of Reef Check appears to have been a key factor in its success. If the programme had been designed to pay people to survey reefs, the surveys would stop when the funds ran out. Participants in the programme become strong supporters of sustainable management of coral reefs. By developing a political constituency, the programme helps to build support for existing and future government management pro-grammes.

As with any new idea, scepticism was initially expressed by some scientists regarding the value of a programme such as Reef Check that uses non-scientists to col-lect data. As time has passed, increasing numbers of doubters have joined the hundreds of volunteer scien-tists who have participated and given their time and expertise to support the work. Many scientists have discovered that they have gained a great deal from the experience of acting as team scientists. Through the process of leading the training and surveys, they can directly experience their value to the community just by answering questions on coral reef ecology posed by a diverse audience.

The quality of the data collected by volunteers has been compared formally with that collected by pure scientific teams and the differences are small. The data

have been used for major meta-analyses by independ-ent scientists and published in top scientific journals. Reef Check data have been used to help assess and manage impacts from coral bleaching, a tsunami, and fishing impacts.

Monitoring and management have costs and neither developing, nor developed country governments will ever be willing to commit resources to fund large monitoring networks using detailed methods typically employed in academic ecological research. By using the existing Reef Check network of government and NGO coordinators, huge cost-savings can be achieved because most of the work is carried out by volunteers.

Since 1997 Reef Check has assisted many countries to establish national coral reef monitoring and manage-ment programmes. The best monitoring programmes are developed adaptively, in the context of serving management needs that will change with time as new threats arise including global warming and ocean acid-ification.

Lastly, as with all Reef Check/Biosphere Expeditions programmes, Reef Check provides a local and a global element. Local information and tools for governments to make decisions (such as the recent declaration of two marine protected areas in Oman based on Bio-sphere Expeditions survey work there), as well as the global component that comes with the gamut of ap-plications that Reef Check has, as described above. Ul-timately none of this could happen without the time, commitment and energy of people from all walks of life. People like you reading this Magazine.

Alvin Chelliah, Reef Check Malaysia

Reef Check Malaysia has been conducting coral reef surveys around the country since 2007. However,

we have always found it difficult to survey islands that are not inhabited and distant. We lack manpower and funding to survey such areas and hence there were gaps in our data. Working with citizen scientists helps fill in these gaps. The research vessel that Biosphere Expeditions provides allows us to survey the smaller islands off Tioman and the volunteers will provide the added manpower we require. This is vital for sci-entists and managers that are working hard to protect coral reefs in our country.

Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt, Marine Conser-vation Society & Reef Check co-ordina-tor Maldives

The collaboration between Biosphere Expeditions and the work of Reef Check in the Maldives is in-

valuable. In the past the Marine Conser-vation Society has taken part in ad hoc surveys with liveaboards, but this col-laboration with Biosphere Expeditions has very significantly widened our un-derstanding about the health of Maldiv-ian reefs. We look forward to further successful surveys next year.

Italo Bonilla, Cayos Cochinos Marine Natural Monument, Honduras

We are always look-ing for help to do as much research as we can in order to in-crease our knowledge

of our natural resources and how to man-age them sustainably. Working with inter-national volunteers gives us a great op-portunity to do this on our coral reefs. On top of that there is intense cultural ex-change leading to greater cross-cultural understanding, so there are multiple bene-fits for the archipelago of Cayos Cochinos.

Rita Bento, marine biologist, Emirates Diving Association, UAE

The work of Bio-sphere Expeditions on the Musandam coral reefs has had a great impact in the region

regarding the collection of scientific data and the creation of a marine protected area in a remote and little touched area of the sea. In addition there has also been a great increase in environmental awareness about this important underwater habitat - both locally through the creation of schol-arships and educational programmes and influencing decision-makers, as well as in-ternationally through the involvement of volunteers from all over the world. Bio-sphere Expeditions unite in an exemplary way in all their projects two important subjects - science and awareness.

Biosphere Expeditions marine scientists on their projects

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More info www.biosphere-expeditions.org/maldives

This SCUBA diving expedition will take you to the beautiful 26 coral atolls that make up the Republic of Maldives. There you will help marine biologists study and protect its spectacular coral reefs and resident whale shark popula-tion. All this because the Maldives gov-ernment identified a need for further research and monitoring work as far back as 1997. Biosphere Expeditions is addressing this need with your help and will train you as a Reef Check Eco-Diver. With this qualification you will then gather important reef and whale shark data and you will also be eligible to apply for PADI or NAUI Reef Check Speciality Course certification after the expedition.


Dates & meeting point12 - 18 September 2015 (7 days)The meeting point is in Male, the capital of the Maldives.

Little and large: surveying and safeguarding coral reefs & whale sharksof the Maldives archipelago

MALDIVES

Picture Volker Lottmann

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Citizen science

This Magazine is about showcasing (citizen) scientists and their projects. What have they achieved?Here is an overview.

Without a doubt the most recent and biggest feather in our cap is the protection of two ma-rine areas in Musandam, Oman. Needless to say we were delighted, because we played a pivotal role. We are still the only organisation conducting reef research in the area and we had been badgering decision-makers in government for years; to have it all come to fruition was a brilliant reward for all the hard work done over many years. Thank you to all who were involved. This is a powerful demonstration of how volunteering expeditions can and should work. The funding and labour our citizen scientists provide enables us to keep chipping away at the block, year after year. This sets us apart from many other research pro-jects, where very often (grant) funding is limited to a few years at best. Yet generally government decision-making takes many years, not just a few, so efforts ebb away, break-ing themselves on the big rocks of slow-moving bureau-cracies that often have the economy and growth, but not conservation, on their agendas.

Time is often the key ingredient. And we can buy time, because our citizen scientists provide a reliable and steady stream of hard cash and passionate effort. The Maldives are another case in point. There the govern-ment is slashing funding available for reef research and conservation. Incredibly, really, for a country whose economy, sustenance and very existence is built on the

bedrock of coral reefs. So we turn to civil society and es-tablish community-based monitoring programmes.

Again, we can only do this because we have time. We may be in the country for only a week or two each year, but we are there year after year, training and empower-ing locals. Local placement Shaha Hashim has fulfilled her ambition, on page 47 of the 2014 Magazine (page 47), of becoming a Reef Check trainer, alongside her colleague Rafil Mohamed (see page 29). Both will now go on to es-tablish community-based reef monitoring programmes, and Saha has also founded a reef conservation NGO. In the absence of much interest from the government, this bottom up approach is exactly what is needed.

These are just two examples to illustrate that citizen science does work, if done right. Other examples are on the following pages.

Dr. Matthias Hammer, Executive Director, Biosphere Expeditions

Time and money, scientists and their citizens what they can achieve

PolandBiosphere Expeditions played an active role in saving 50 wolves from being declared legitimate hunting targets in the Bieszczady mountains in Poland. This was achieved by providing accurate information on the predator numbers and by influencing the local authori-ties who reversed their decision to cull wolves.

Peru AmazonTogether with our partners in Peru, Bio-sphere Expeditions was able to halt a dam construction project, which was threatening a biodiversity hotspot in the Peru Amazon region.

Prevention of wildlife and wilderness destruction

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Wildlife and wilderness management & protection

NamibiaBiosphere Expeditions played a pivotal role in establishing the countrys largest leopardresearch project, working with local ranchers and resolving human-wildlife conflict, which led to a significant reduction in big cats killed in the country.

Peru AmazonOur guidelines for boat behaviour at clay licks in the Tambopata Reserve have been incorporated in local management plans. Guidelines are needed because unsustainable forms of farming, logging and tourism are threatening the natural habitat in the Peruvian Amazon.

Brazilian Atlantic rainforestOur recommendations for the management and protection of jaguars have been incorporated into national and state-wide jaguar action plans in Brazils Atlantic rainforest.

Caribbean marine protected area, HondurasOur recommendations for the management and protection of the coral reefs of the Cayos Cochinos marine protected area in Honduras have been incorporated into the managing authorities action plan.

Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, United Arab EmiratesOur recommendations for the management of Arabian oryx and Gordons wildcat have beenincorporated into the action plan of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve.

Spanish PyreneesTogether with our partners in Spain, we helped to reverse EU high altitude carcass removal regulation, which was designed to combat the spread of BSE, but was starving high mountain vultures and bears.

Protected area creation

Southern AfricaData collected by our expeditions in Namibia have helped our local and international partners make arguments that have led to the declara-tion of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, or KAZA TFCA. The KAZA TFCA is the worlds largest conservation area, spanning five southern African countries; Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, centered around the Caprivi-Chobe-Victoria Falls area. Also in Namibia, fewer lions, leopards and cheetahs have been killed in farmer-predator conflict due to our data collection, awareness-building and educational work.

OmanData collected by our expeditions as well as our intensive work to influ-ence decision-makers have led to the protection of two marine areas in the Musandam Peninsula of Oman, where all fishing except local handline fishing has been banned by a new ministerial decree.

UkraineData collected by our expeditions in the Ukraine have helped our local partners make arguments that have led to the declaration of a national park. This park now protects a unique steppe area jutting into the Black Sea, a stop-off point for many migratory birds, as well as a haven for fauna (e.g. birds & wolves) and flora (it boasts amongst other things Europes biggest orchid field).

Altai RepublicData collected by our expeditions in the Altai have helped our local and interna-tional partners make arguments that have led to the declaration of a protected area in the Altai Republic, Central Asia. This area now provides a protected habitat for a number of endangered species, including the snow leopard. Also in the Altai, we have converted local poachers into conservationists by paying them for verifiable camera trap pictures of snow leopards sur-viving year-on-year. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but with so few snow leopards remaining, some stopgap solutions are needed until the long-term ones can be reached.

AustraliaWhen Australia created the worlds largest network of marine reserves in 2012, the Roebuck Commonwealth Marine Reserve, site of our flatback turtle study, was part of the network. Along with our local partners, we were working towards getting flat-back turtles listed within the major conservation values of the reserve and this is what happened, with the citation being Forag-ing area adjacent to important nesting sites for flatback turtles.

Citizen science

Pictures Alfredo Dosantos

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I really appreciate the effort Biosphere Expeditions makes to involve locals in their expeditions to the Maldives. Curious about the Reef Check course,

I approached them in 2013. This year I have qualified as a Reef Check trainer, which qualifies me to conduct my own surveys and train my com-patriots

here in the Maldives. Together with Rafil we hope to monitor many sites now, feeding into Reef Check and national conservation efforts, which are needed

urgently. I hope to get more people to see the reef as I do now.Shaha Hashim

(Also see news on first-ever all-Maldivian survey on page 46.)

Citizen science

Establishing community-based monitoring programmes in the Maldives

2014 local placements (left to right): Rafil Mohamed, board member of the Maldives Dive Association;

Shaha Hashim from GEMANA NGO; Ibrahim Shameel from the Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme

Via our local partner LaMer, the Rufford Foundation kindly supported these placements.

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(press release 27 November 2013)

Biosphere Expeditions welcomes protection for unique marine ecosystem in Musandam, Oman

In two secluded bays in the coral-rich waters of the Musandam peninsula in Oman, all fishing bar the local handline fishing has been banned by a new ministerial decree. This significant step forward in the conservation of the beauty and resources of this relatively untouched marine area has been welcomed today by the research organisation that has spearheaded the underwater research effort and campaigned towards greater protec-tion, Biosphere Expeditions. Dr. Matthias Hammer, the founder and executive director of the organisation, today talked about the work that Biosphere Expeditions has been doing in the area since 2008: This area has a high coral coverage at nearly 60 per cent of the underwater surface. This is greater than that of most reefs around the world, and the Musandam reefs are certainly the best in the region. The Ministry of Agriculture and Finsheriess (MoAF) decision prohibits the use of all kinds of nets and cages, and any other fishing equipment, except handlines. This is a wise and important step in ensuring the survival of this unique marine ecosystem and natural jewel in Omans crown.

A senior official at the Marine Sciences and Fisheries Centre, on whose recommenda-tions such decisions are taken, said that both the Khor Najd and Khor Hablain bay areas are rich in corals, and fishing would end up destroying them. The destruction of corals means severe damage to the marine life in the area. So this measure not only protects reefs, but also helps in sustainability of marine resources.

We could not agree more, says Hammer, and we are delighted that our voice has been heard, that our reports have been read and our recommendations have been heeded. But he also added a note of caution, saying that without further intervention, the low numbers of fish and invertebrate populations in the area could mean that any additional stress may lead to coral die-off. The general fishing ban announced by MoAF is certainly a progressive and welcome step in the right direction, says Hammer. Moving forward we recommend that a Marine Protected Area (MPA), or a network of MPAs, is created in north Musandam. We also urge rapid action before what is at the moment still a unique natural treasure for Oman is degraded and lost. If more habitat is lost or degraded before full MPA protection is implemented, there is a good chance that fish and invertebrate populations will not be able to recover from their current very low numbers and that the current high coral coverage will be lost. As a result, the decrease in some fish and invertebrate families is likely to have future negative impacts on substrate composition and the reef ecosystem as a whole. This in turn will threaten livelihoods and treasured lifestyles around Musandam, warns Dr. Hammer.

The next stage, said Dr. Hammer, is to obtain formal support to extend protection from fishing bans to a full MPA. Biosphere Expeditions will continue its research, now includ-ing studying the effects of the fishing ban. Ultimately, given funding and government support, Biosphere Expeditions plans to extend its efforts to comprehensive surveys (in-cluding for example, fisheries landings, stakeholder consultations, etc) and a roadmap towards an MPA.

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30 | Magazine 2014

More info www.biosphere-expeditions.org/sumatra

This tiger conservation project will take you to the Indonesian island of Sumatra to survey critically endan-gered Sumatran tigers and the rainfor-est setting in which they are struggling to survive. You will be working as part of an international team from a com-fortable traditional timber house ex-pedition base inside the forest. You will be covering ground on foot, in boats and on motorbikes, looking for tracks, kills, scats and the animals themselves, and setting camera traps. You will also work with local people on capacity-building and creating local incentives for tiger conservation. All this in an effort to mitigate human-wildlife con-flict and create strategies to ensure the survival of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger into the future.


Dates & meeting point3 - 15 May 201517 - 29 May 201531 May - 12 June 201526 July - 7 August 20159 - 21 August 201523 August - 4 September 2015 (13 days)The meeting point is Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau, a province in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra.

Forest flagship: researching & conserving critically endangered Sumatrantigers in Rimbang Baling Wildlife Sanctuary, Sumatra, Indonesia

SUMATRA - INDONESIA

Magazine 2014 | 31

We continue to be proud of everything that all those who contribute to Biosphere Expeditions achieve, but doubtless the biggest achievement in the year since the last Magazine was the creation of two marine protected areas in Oman. The efforts of Biosphere Expeditions and its citizen scientists were pivotal for this and the story is covered in more detail in the article Time and money, scientists and their citizens on page 27.

Small, flexible, ethical

Biosphere Expeditions continues to be a small, flexible, ethical organisation. We talk a lot about ethics in volun-tourism and the worlds obsession with growth. In last years round-up we said that we definitely do not want to be part of the [worlds] obsession with growth. This is now reflected in our economic policy, which also goes hand in hand with our sponsorship policy (see info box on the right). To our knowledge these policies are unique in citizen science and voluntourism, as is our vegetarian food policy (also see info box on the right), which we have had in place for some years now. And further on ethical topics, our battle against the charlatans in citizen science / voluntourism continues. Our Top Ten Tips (see below) con-tinue to make an impact with the media and prospective citizen scientists. In fact, this whole Magazine issue is on this topic and how to make the best use of keen and commit-ted citizen scientists for wildlife conservation.

Big cats in Sumatra, Tien Shan and South Africa

2015 will see the launch of two new, exciting big cat expe-ditions: Tigers in Sumatra, as well as leopards and caracal in South Africa. This is on top of our very successful 2014 launch of the inaugural snow leopard expedition to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan. The snow leopard pro-

1. Reputation, reputation, reputation: has the organisation

won awards or accolades, who are they associated with, what

is their philosophy, do they write & publish their results and

whats their safety record.

2. Qualified staff: work should be led by qualified & proven

experts, group leaders should be well qualified and all staff

should be well briefed on risks and safety issues.

3. Where does your money go: good organisations will always

publish clear information that shows how your money is spent.

4. Proper follow-through: a good organisation will, through

updates and reports, keep you informed about how the project

progresses even after youve left.

5. What will you get out of it: be clear about what you want

to get out of the experience - training, self-development, an

adventure - then check whether the organisation is clear in

communicating whats on offer for you.

6. Community involvement and benefit: understand a projects

relationship to the local community and make sure that the or-

ganisation is properly embedded with local efforts and people

does the community benefit, have they given consent for work

to be carried out, how have they been involved. Is there training

for locals, scholarships, capacity-building, education, etc.

7. Your fellow participants: understand the profile of the

people that will share your trip by checking the organisations

website and social media sites.

8. In the field: check that the organisation is clear & transparent

about what will be happening day to day, the accommodation,

food and other logistics, and also what is expected of you.

9. Captive animals: if the experience involves captive animals,

be very clear on the purpose of the captive facility, where the ani-

mals come from and whether it is part of a reputable programme.

10. Handling animals: steer clear of organisations that en-

courage handling of captive wild animals for anything other

than essential veterinary or neo-natal surrogate care. If

wild animals are handled, it should only be for essen-tial research & conservation work and following strict animal welfare guidelines.

More details at www.biosphere-expeditions.org/toptentips

TOP TEN TIPSChoosing a wildlife volunteering experience

This is what you should look out for

From an article written by Matthias Hammerand published in Wildlife Extra in October 2014:

Voluntourism has come in for rough ride in the recent past, and rightly so. With impressive growth rates, profit-driven charlatans and pretenders have sadly flooded into the market. The worst examples include bogus animal sanctuaries and fake orphanages. When Biosphere Expeditions started in 1999, volunteering was the domain of charities and NGOs. Now it is a multi-million pound business with far too many touchy-feely wildlife projects.

Fortunately its not that hard to look behind the glitzy fronts. The best way to avoid the charlatans is to ask the right questions. For example: is the operator a non-profit organisation or a profit-driven business? What is the rationale for involving volunteers (what will they do exactly, where and when)? What will be the outcome and how will local people and/or wildlife benefit? Does the organisation have any achievements it can list, any awards or other accolades? Is it transparent in its finances and structure?

A handful of pointed questions such as these will, in most cases, separate the good from the bad from the downright ugly.

on decent citizen science in wildlife conservationTop Ten Tips

ject has only been running for a year, but it has already won the accolade of Life-changing Volunteering trip for 2014 from Wildlife Extra in the UK, something that demonstrates its importance for volunteers as well as the snow leopard. The tiger and snow leopard projects are in collaboration with WWF Indonesia and German NABU (Naturschutz-bund) respectively, two well-known and import

Documents

Biosphere Expeditions Magazine 2015